Swimmers in synch for Canada Winter Games

A trio of Victoria Synchro club swimmers cracked the top-10 at a Canada Winter Games Trials held at the University of B.C. last weekend.

Emma Choo, 14, and Luiza Vasylyeva, 13, of Saanich, and Sarah Jones, 15, of Oak Bay, all earned valuable points that will help them on their campaign to represent Team B.C. at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George.

The trials rank the athletes by their combined results from their performance based on technical skills, figures and a standard routine set.

“It’s a little different than normal, as it is all individual events to qualify for a place in the Canada Winter Games,” said Victoria Synchro coach Tara Gant. “The top athletes come together to form a team routine.”

Gant will also lead Team B.C. at the Winter Games in Prince George, which is just over a year away as it falls in February 2015.

“Our athletes did the best in the figure event with Choo placing third, Jones placing fourth and Vasylyeva in seventh.”

There’s no awards or medals at this point as the event scores go toward the synchronized swimmers’ long term rankings, with three more sets of trials between now and August 2014. The top 10 ranking athletes at that time will qualify.

It would be a great improvement for Greater Victoria to send three synchro athletes to the Winter Games as there was only one from the region at the past two Winter Games events.

The next trial is Feb. 15 where B.C’s top 16 athletes will be identified. The top 12 will be named at the May 24 synchro event at Saanich Commonwealth Place.